A career scripted in history

One of the major approaches in studying the language has been identifying the meaning of specific words, she adds.

"It's extremely difficult, and that's why our country is offering substantial prize money for those who manage to decode an unsolved word," Li says.

Other study directions include analyzing the scripts' grammatical structure and interpreting their content to better understand social conditions of the past.

The video was her first work, and took her more than five hours to finish.

"I felt the initial draft was written in a too cryptic and specialized manner, overly difficult to understand, so I revised it word by word, sentence by sentence, ensuring that every sentence could be understood by people not in the field," she says.

Moreover, she made a point of interlacing her delivery with funny emoji to make it more audience friendly.

To date, the video has received more than 160,000 thumbs-up on her account, where she is known by the alias Li Youxi and has more than 220,000 followers.

"It was the middle of the night when I finished filming," she recalls.

When she got up the next morning, the video was viewed more than 1 million times and earned her more than 10,000 fans overnight.

The sudden popularity of her work has made her determined to publicize the ancient words that have been very close to her heart.

So far, she has delivered more than 40 videos that cast light on oracle bone scripts in various aspects.

Her vivid explanations conjure up images of the historical scenes and seem to bring the hieroglyphics closer to modern life, as she demonstrates a ruler's "love letter", and ancient people's anxiety toward body image.

"Many people find these characters intriguing, because the formation of characters at that time was inherently interesting," Li says.

"By delving into those oracle inscriptions, we can get a glimpse into the thoughts and culture of the people of that era … and perhaps also learn their wisdom in dealing with mundane matters," she adds.